What do you expect from CSC Petition?

V

vipsha

Registered Users (C)
Seriously if you ask me I don’t have any expectations from CSC petitions though I was one of few first who did sign the petition. Now don’t lecture me that it is much better if you don’t do nothing, I know it is better do something instead of nothing All I am asking what are your expectations from CSC petition. You may be having different view.

PS: It was great effort buy yet to see the results.
This post is not intent to discourage ppl by any means.
 
Nothing much. Not that INS does not already know how people are eager to get their applications approved.
The delay is a manipulated <b> effort </b>.

But deep in the heart, I would like to think that they would strive to improve.
 
maybe nothing but still worth the effort.

Just to emphasize the fact here is a trail of my communication with an eminent Immigration Lawyer in the country who sits on the AILA board of directors.

I have hidden the identity of the ;awyer and mine as much as possible in this email thread and also like any email thread start reading from the email at bottom of the chain (bottom of the page) first.

**********************
Subject: RE: Petition to CSC


Hi J____,

Thanks for giving due thought and consideration to my request. I agree with your assessment of our petition drive in toto. It would be a soft measure, unlikely to bring any dramatic change in the near future but regardless we will pursue this path because of the following reasons:

1. this might be my or our (speaking on behalf of many applicants) only option at this stage. We do not weild much political leverage as a group for many congressmen to back us up or at least they do not consider that.

2. Granted, it may not bring the changes we seek immediately, but at least a lot of individuals within BCIS will become acutely aware of the building frustrations of the potential US citizens and we might in the process change the attitude of a small percentage of the decision makers.

3. If a lot of other eminent lawyers like yourself, the applicants themselves and other eminent immigrants use relevant forums or opportunities to bring to light the callous attitude of BCIS in handling these applications, more people will be aware. Somewhere down the road it might bring a change. Our efforts might just lead to the change in attitude/thinking of a few people at a time. It will surely benefit future legit immigrants, or as I would like to believe.

So far we have convinced one lawyer ( http://www.immigration.com/common/rsk/petition_california.html ) to send a petition on our behalf and 400 people have signed it. I will continue to do my part. As you rightly said it is also a good way to channelize the energies of such applicants and give them an opportunity to vent their frustration in a positive way.

Hoping to bring a change one mind at a time.

Sincerely,

Kuldeep


Jeff Appleman <jappleman@usabal.com> wrote:

Hi Kuldeep,
I have discussed your email with my colleagues. We share your frustration with the indefensible processing delays that are being experienced by adjustment of status applicants as well as by virtually every other category of immigration applicant. The six month plus processing times for H1B petitions is another example of the many ways that BCIS (formerly INS) is failing the petitioners and applicants who rely on the agency for fair and expeditious processing of applications. The recent scathing review of the premium processing program by the Office of the Inspector General makes clear that this is a view that is shared both inside and outside of the government. (See: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/audit/0314/final.pdf) It is also a view of which BCIS is undoubtedly aware.

Your idea of a petition drive would, in my view, be a good way of providing a means of venting the frustration of the many adjustment of status applicants who are victimized by these processing delays. I think that it is unlikely however, that it would result in any remedial action. My view is that it is going to take a combination of concerted congressional pressure and a litigation strategy to effect the kinds of changes that you seek. On the other hand, I do not see any harm in your petition strategy as long as you embark on the petition drive with realistic expectations.

Thanks for sharing your ideas with me. Please keep me in the loop on your progress.
Regards,
J___





Subject: RE: Petition to CSC


Thanks a lot for your consideration. I will be eagerly waiting for your response.

Sincerely,

Kuldeepc



Hi Kuldeep,
Thanks for your email. I will discuss your idea with some of my colleagues here and get back to you soon.
Regards,
J___





-----Original Message-----
Subject: Petition to CSC


Dear Mr. A_________,

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a client of your firm and my AOS case is being handled by one of your attorneys.

I have been watching the slow progress or lack of it for the last 8 months and thought of writing to you to see if you would help people like me by petitioning BCIS to either process I485 like they used to earlier or at least let people know of their stance and what can we expect in terms of processing times.

As you are probably aware that there has been a marked slow down in the processing speed of I485's after September 2002 for one reason or the other. Though Vermont and Nebraska picked up speed after so called system changes CSC is still lagging way behind.

This uncertainity has kind of put the our lives on hold. I was wondering if you would be interested in initiating a petition to CSC requesting them to speed up and provide more accurate estimates of processing times. I am sure a lot of poeple will be ready to sign such a petition.

Most of the people coming in through EB category are productive and positively contributing members of the American society and economy. I am sure many of us will play bigger role in near future in the field of science, politics and/or business. It will nice if BCIS recognizes this and at least abstains from treating us with this callous attitude.

I am writing to eminent lawyers like yourself, journalists and some eminent immigrants to write such petitions to BCIS to help smoothen the process of immigration without compromising America's security. Their should be some time limit on the waiting period. This department's inefficient functioning is totally uncharacteristic of any other that I have dealt with in this great country.

Sincerely,

Kuldeepc
 
My expectations from the petition... nothing! AOS has definitely no priority with BCIS. The petition is just gonna gather moss along with our 485s. Companies are not supportive as they were when applications were approved faster. If there exists an implicit directive from the Feds to not prioritize AOS applications, why would BCIS care about a petition? None of us will be citizens any time soon and would have no impact on any political outcome in the short term, UNLESS of course we form some sort of group with lobbying powers by contributing funds to the Republican party.

Yes, the illegals have more privileges than us, because they have a much bigger influence in terms of votes and the economy of the country wuold be in a far worse shape than it is in now if it weren't for all the cheap labor. So BCIS is gonna take its own sweet time with our applications with a big sign hanging in their office, "America- love it or leave it!".
 
Hi all,

I agree with the 'realistic expectations' bit.

I might sound opinionated, but this entire business really needs to be approached as a Marketing excercise.

Basic Marketing consists of cycling one's potential customers through an AIDA matrix: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action.
The reason why it is a matrix is that if one considers AIDA to be the columns, one can think of various segments of potential customers as comprising the rows.

The Petition is a good Awareness vehicle; perhaps even Interest.
It, therefore, has value because it drives some entity ( eg. ourselves, local congresspeople, pro-bono lawyers, American Civil liberties Union, AILA...) closer towards a Desire to do something and actually taking some Action.

I am beginning to think that we are reaching a point where we might just need to band together, raise some funds, and go after whoever and whatever needs going after (see example list above) and start making implementation plans for each matrix cell transition and executing on the plans.

There is great power that can be leveraged from interested parties and the media, if we handle this right. We will need to involve AILA, perhaps even form a guild of 'the hapless unwashed waiting multitude' (read ourselves).

Would like to hear from like-minded individuals who have had it up to the back teeth, and would like to do something about it.

The Petition is a start. Do we have a plan on the follow through?
 
We can also search the information of the immigration support groups in US (isn.org is a good example, I am sure there is more, although not all of them are for employment based immigration like us).

Because they will have more channel and experience than us to bring some pressures on CSC. And we can contact them and tell them our experience.

gettingclosernow's letter can be a good start for us.

Jeremy
 
Good thread

I agree that we should have a realistic view of the petition.

While it is a possibility they will act on it right away, that is obviously an extremely optimistic view and conversely to think they will ignore the petition completely is a very pessimistic view.

So the response will be somewhere in between these extremes, who knows where. My view is that in the short term it's likely not to change their behaviour, however I would like to think that currently they have a push on to reduce the backlog of EAD's, and when that finishes, maybe this petition will be sitting in the back of their minds gnawing away and they will shift the next emphasis to the 485's.

While it may be good "therepy" for people here to have a petition to send and vent their frustrations, I disagree with the fatalist view that this is the prime benefit of the petition. I also don't see the petition being just sent to CSC and ending there. I think it was the lawyers letter that said it will take a concerted effort - I agree.

I had already copied the letter and signatures and once the petition is sent, I intended to send a similar letter I drafted to KRON with the petition letter and petition signatures to as many media companies in California as well as the governer, congressmen etc. Hopefully be sending a blast there will be a few that will pick it up and also question/put pressure on the CSC and ask what's this all about to reinforce the petition to CSC forcing them to consider it hard.

I also agree that we should try to organize. When it comes to organizing to do something I know there are a precious few that will actually commit, many talk a good game but few will pony up. For those who are sick of this torture and want to do something constructive (not just bemoan our fate) then let's put our hands up and devise a strategy and divide up the tasks.
 
As mentioned in many other web sites and threads,
the real problems is that BCIS is understaffed and
the employees there are underpaid and many times
undertrained.
On top of this, DHS imposes all kinds of priorities on
the service centers, and AOS applications are usually
thrown to back burner.

Not much use venting at the employees, IMHO.
They are only the tip of the iceberg.

The long term solution is to increase the BCIS budget,
which Congressmen can do. We do not have much leverage
with the elected, since we cannot vote. Our
friends who used to be in our situation and later
became citizens, along with the Immigration Law
community, are the best allies.

A short term remedy could be re-ordering of priorities.
Priorities are sometimes set by politicians who want to
look good and have good press coverage.
This is, in my opinion, where a petition might help - if
we can make it to the media and have the media interview
a few politicians about it, then this might become
more important to them.

HR04
 
I agree with gettingcloser about precious few who might want to commit an investment in time and effort. However, we surely can ask for a show of hands. I am in the SFO Bay Area. I'm sure many others are.

If we get a few initial positives, i'm willing to first set up a yahoo group for dissemination of messages, follwed by meeting up physically.

My 2 cents is that we need to organize into grpups or cells charged with specific tasks based on group member predelictions and access to resources.

Example cells:

1. BCIS Database intellegence (a la Kashmir)
2. Data collection and processing (trend analysis, horror stories identification)
3. Affected employers' liaison
4. Public opinion collateral creation (based on 1, 2 & 3 above)
5. Print media liaison
6. Radio/TV media liaison
7. Legal body liaison (eg. AILA, ACLU)
8. Political liaison (senators, congress people)
9. Law enforcement liaison (advance notice of peaceful demonstrations. etc. [these things require prior negotiations where possible and agreed code of conduct to avoid unwanted consequences])

This is not an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add to list and add your ideas...maybe we will need a Prioritization cell! :)
 
The real problem is also the lying around the government is doing.

Consider this, INS used to be enforcement plus customer service. Then they split it up in two. Customer service is where they make money as application fees. So instead of allocating money equally to BICE and BCIS, BICE got around 100 times as much money as BCIS did .... classic case of screwed up properties.

And regards illegal immigration, reminds me of something Advani said,

Hum do hamare do,
Bangladeshi aaney do.

(Indians will know what that means).
 
expectations?

not much unless, we do things like peaceful demonstrations (not just one, mind you) in front of the INS offices, with KRON 4 or other covering us...or trying to get visibility for this problem in the media...

Media seems to be all in the USA...If we can make it look like we are recieving end from INS, perhaps there is a chance that INS will do something for PR reasons???

Petition was one way of activism - but that still has no public visibility...demonstrations can have some visibility...But we got make sure nothing untowards happens during the demonstations...
 
thought...

My simple feeling on the whole issue is, CSC have definitely lost most of the filed papers through shredding and they are trying to come up with various explanations. Firstly they said very few cases then they came up saying we will process cases randomly, then 485 is not their priority. When all know their answers are not true and correct, the messages are fishy. This is my view on this, may be wrong as well. When another center can allocate resources and process cases in a timely manner, why would CSC management doesnot plan and blame it on something else or indirectly they are raising funds for thier service centers.
 
I kinda like the idea of banding together, collecting money and lobbying for change. That is the only way we can expect things to move in this country. The legislature is the only branch that can make things happen. So if we have to move the chains, then we need to collect cash, contribute time and effort to campaigning drives. Support both the main stream parties, etc.

But the million dollar question, is who is the man/band of men/women who will bell the cat! How many people are willing to put in the time and effort to do this. Offcourse if we can collect upto a couple of million dollars we could just hire a lobbying company to do this for us, but we still need point men!

As far as expectations on the petition is concerned, I have to agree, I don't expect much. But I have better expectations from going after the news media and getting them to focus a spot light on the INS.
 
More serious idea...

Is it possible to take BCIS to court for failing to adjudicate on time? I dont know what we can take them there for...but can it be done? like an issue of service or something...after all our issue is simple - we are paying an org money for some service & you would expect it 2 be wrapped up fairly & reasonably soon enuff.

like a "public interest litigation" or something??? idea is not to collect damages or something though (not that I expect to get any :) ) - just to get them to speed up, I guess...
 
I expect nothing from anything we try to do,as there is a popular saying that

WE CAN WAKE UP IF SOMEONE IS SLEEPING,BUT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE IF SOME ONE PRETENDS SLEEPING .

Between us i signed the petition the first day , and main itna besharam hu i still feel that my approval is waiting for me @ my mail box every damn day i open it . ;)
 
Originally posted by HR04

the real problems is that BCIS is understaffed and
....
HR04
Click to expand...


Did INS laid off some people? Because from what I heard during the good old days when H1B quota was increased, they hired more people at all INS ofices (I know atleast in CSC) to meet the demand. Things were getting done very quickly then.
I haven't heard of any lay offs later.
I still think the delay is manipulated.
 
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